Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-15

our present tariff laws should be devised
with especial precaution against imperil-
| ing the existence Of our manufacturing
| interests. But this existence should not
mean condition which, without regard
/ to the public welfare or national ext
gency, must always Insure the realization
/ of
TMMENsE PROFITS
instead of moderately profitable returns.
As the volume and diversity of our na-
tional activity increases, new recruits are
added to those who desire continuance
or the advantages which they conceive
the present system Of tariff taxation di-
rectly affords them. So stubbornly have
all efforts to reform the present condi-
ton been resisted by those of our fellow
citizens thus engaged, that they can
hardly complain of the suspicion enter
tanned TO certain extent that there ex
lists an organized combination all
| along the line TO maint tain their advan-
tage.
| Ii is also said that the increase in the
! price of domestic manufactures, result
| ing from the present tariff, is necessary
in order that higher wages may be paid
| 80
OUR WORKING MEN,
employed In manufactures, when they
are compared with what is called pauper
| labor IN Europe. We all acknowledge
| the force of an argumen5 which involves
the welfare aud liberal com pensation of
cur laborlng people, All labor is honor
able IN the eyes of every American citi-
zen and lies at the foundation of our de-
| yelopment. It is entitled without affec-
tation or hypocrisy to the utmost
regard. The standard of our laborer,
life should not be measured by
that of any other country less favored and
bhey are eutitled to their full share OF our
advantages.
By the last census it is made to appear,
that of the 1882, 099 of our population
| engaged in all kinds of industries 7.67O,-
493 are employed in agriculture, 4,074,238
in professional and personal service,
2,499, 876 of whom are domestic servants
and laborers, while 1,810,256 are en-
ployed in trade and trans portation, and
1884, 12 are classed as employed at man
Ufaoturing and mining. For present
purposes, however, thelast number given
should be considerably reduced.
Without attempting to enumerate
be deducted from those which it includes.
375,l4 carpenters and joiners, 2S5,170
milliners, dressmakers and seam
stresses, 49, 26 blacksmiths, 1896
tailors and tajloresses, 100000 ma
sons, 1924 butchers, Al 900 bakers,
22,182 plastsrers, and 1901 manu-
featuring agricultural i'm plements, leav-
ing 262,308 persons employed in manu-
featuring industries as are claimed to be
benefited by s'high tariff" To these the
appeal is made TO save their employment
and maintain their wages by resisting a
change, and there should be no dis
position to answer such sugges-
tions by the allegation that they
are in minority among those
who labor and therefore should
,forego an advantage in the interest Of
Jew prices for the majority. Their com
pensation, as II may be affected by the
operations OF tariff laws, should at all
times be scrupulously kept in view, and
yet with slight reflections, they will not
overlook the fact that they are consumers
with the rest, they too have their own
wants and those of thsir families to sup
ply from their earnings and that the
prices of the necessaries of life as we'll as
the amount of those wants will regulate
the measure of their welfare and com.
fort. But the
REDUCTION OF TAXATION
demanded should be so measured as not
TO necessitate or justify either the loss Of
en- ployment by the workingman nor the
lessening Of his wages, and the profits
still re naining to the manufactures after
necessary readiustmen5 should furnish
no excuse for the sacrifice OF the inter
ests of his employers in either their OPP
portunity to work or the disainution of
their compensation.
THE woRKrNGMAN's NEED.
Nor can worker in manufactures I'M
aerstand that while high tariff IS
clainsd to be necessary to allow the pay
ment of remuneratiye wages, 1t certainly
results in very large increase in the
price of nearly all sorts of manufactures
which, in almost countless forms, he needs
for the use of himself and his family. He
receives at the desk of his employer his
wages, and, perhaps, before he reaches
his home, is obliged, in purchase for
family use OF an article which embraces
his own labor, to return, IN the payment
of the increasing price which the tariff
permits, the hard-earned compensation
of many days Of toll The farmer and
the agriculturaIist, who manufacture
nothing, but who pays the increased price
which the tariff imposes upon every ag-
rioultural implement, upon all he wears
and upon all hs uses and owns, except
the increase Of his focks and herds and
such things as his husbandry produces
from the soil is invitsd TO aid in
maintaining the present situation When
he is told that high duty
on imported wool is necessary for
the benefit OF those who have sheep
TO sheer, in order that the price of their
WOOL may be increased, they Of course ara
not reminded that the farmer who has no
shaep is by this scheme obliged, in his
| purchases of clothing ano wooden goods,
to pay tribute to his fellow farmers, as
| we'll as to the manufacturer and
merchants, nor is any mention made of
! the fact tnat the sheep owners them
selves aud their households must
wear clothing and use other
| srticles manufactured from the wool they
| sell at tariff prices, and thus as consum-
! ers must return their share of the in
creased price to the trsdesman. think
1t may be fairly assumed that large pro-
portion of the sheep owned by the farm